''Zodiac Suite'' is a series of 12 pieces of

jazz music Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major f ...

written by

Mary Lou Williams Mary Lou Williams (born Mary Elfrieda Scruggs; May 8, 1910 – May 28, 1981) was an American jazz pianist, arranger, and composer. She wrote hundreds of compositions and arrangements and recorded more than one hundred records (in 78, 45, and ...

and first performed in 1945. Each song in the suite is inspired by an

astrological sign In Western astrology, astrological signs are the twelve 30-degree sectors that make up Earth's 360-degree orbit around the Sun. The signs enumerate from the first day of spring, known as the First Point of Aries, which is the vernal equinox. ...

and musicians or performers who were born under it. Williams began writing music for ''Zodiac Suite'' in 1942 and finished the composition in 1945. Williams first recorded the suite as part of a trio for

Asch records Moses Asch (December 2, 1905 – October 19, 1986) was an American recording engineer and record executive. He founded Asch Records, which then changed its name to Folkways Records when the label transitioned from 78 RPM recordings to LP records. ...

and followed this with two notable performances with larger groups. The first performance was with a

chamber jazz Chamber jazz is a genre of jazz involving small, acoustic-based ensembles where group interplay is important. It is influenced aesthetically by the small ensembles of chamber music in musical neoclassicism and is often influenced by classical f ...

group and the second was with a

symphony orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, ce ...

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhatta ...

. These performances took such a toll on Williams that she took a break from performing shortly afterwards. While the Asch recording was well received by critics, the contemporary reception to the two concerts was mixed. ''Zodiac Suite'' is notable as an early instance of the fusion of classical and jazz music. Williams's recording and initial performances of the suite have been recognised as breakthroughs in the history of jazz.

Composition and first performances

Composition and Asch recording

Williams began writing ''Zodiac Suite'' in 1942 after borrowing a book on

astrology Astrology is a range of Divination, divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that claim to discern information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the apparent positions of Celestial o ...

. She was interested in the idea of writing music inspired by the star signs of her musician friends. The first three compositions were for "Scorpio", "Gemini" and "Taurus". Duke Ellington's ''

Black, Brown and Beige ''Black, Brown and Beige'' is an extended jazz work written by Duke Ellington for his first concert at Carnegie Hall, on January 23, 1943. It tells the history of African Americans and was the composer's daring attempt to transform attitudes abo ...

'' had given Williams the idea to create an orchestral work that reached outside of jazz music norms. The suite was also influenced by classical composers such as

Béla Bartók Béla Viktor János Bartók (; ; 25 March 1881 – 26 September 1945) was a Hungarian composer, pianist, and ethnomusicologist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century; he and Franz Liszt are regarded as H ...

. Williams explained that the ''Zodiac Suite'' was "the beginning of a real fulfilment of one of my ambitions". Williams had hoped to finish the suite for a live performance on WNEW in 1945 with Al Lucas on bass and Jack Parker on drums. By the time of the performance, she still only had compositions for three star signs. The remaining nine signs were improvised live on air. The performance received a positive reception and Williams subsequently recorded ''Zodiac Suite'' with the same trio for

. Most pieces in the suite were dedicated to or influenced by other performers and their star sign. "Aries" was for

Ben Webster Benjamin Francis Webster (March 27, 1909 – September 20, 1973) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. Career Early life and career A native of Kansas City, Missouri, he studied violin, learned how to play blues on the piano from ...

and

Billie Holiday Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan; April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) was an American jazz and swing music singer. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and music partner, Lester Young, Holiday had an innovative influence on jazz music and pop si ...

; "Taurus" for Duke Ellington; "Gemini" for

Shorty Baker Harold "Shorty" Baker (May 26, 1914 in St. Louis, Missouri, US – November 8, 1966) was an American jazz trumpeter. Baker began on drums, but switched to trumpet during his teens. He started his career on riverboats and played with Don Redman in ...

; "Cancer" for

Lem Davis Lemuel A. Davis (22 June 1914 – 16 January 1970), was an American jazz alto saxophonist associated with swing music. Born in Tampa, Florida, United States, his career began in the 1940s with pianist Nat Jaffe. Davis played with the Coleman ...

; "Leo" for

Vic Dickenson Victor Dickenson (August 6, 1906 – November 16, 1984) was an American jazz trombonist. His career began in the 1920s and continued through musical partnerships with Count Basie (1940–41), Sidney Bechet (1941), and Earl Hines. Life and care ...

; "Libra" for

Art Tatum Arthur Tatum Jr. (, October 13, 1909 – November 5, 1956) was an American jazz pianist who is widely regarded as one of the greatest in his field. From early in his career, Tatum's technical ability was regarded by fellow musicians as extraord ...

Dizzy Gillespie John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie (; October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, educator and singer. He was a trumpet virtuoso and improviser, building on the virtuosic style of Roy Eldridge but addi ...

Bud Powell Earl Rudolph "Bud" Powell (September 27, 1924 – July 31, 1966) was an American jazz pianist and composer. Along with Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Kenny Clarke and Dizzy Gillespie, Powell was a leading figure in the development of modern ...

Thelonious Monk Thelonious Sphere Monk (, October 10, 1917 – February 17, 1982) was an American jazz pianist and composer. He had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including " 'Round Midnight", "B ...

Charlie Parker Charles Parker Jr. (August 29, 1920 – March 12, 1955), nicknamed "Bird" or "Yardbird", was an American jazz saxophonist, band leader and composer. Parker was a highly influential soloist and leading figure in the development of bebop, a form ...

and

John Coltrane John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967) was an American jazz saxophonist The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of br ...

; "Scorpio" for

Ethel Waters Ethel Waters (October 31, 1896 – September 1, 1977) was an American singer and actress. Waters frequently performed jazz, swing, and pop music on the Broadway stage and in concerts. She began her career in the 1920s singing blues. Her not ...

Katherine Dunham Katherine Mary Dunham (June 22, 1909 – May 21, 2006) was an American dancer, choreographer, anthropologist, and social activist. Dunham had one of the most successful dance careers of the 20th century, and directed her own dance company for ma ...

and Al Lucas; "Sagittarius" for

Eddie Heywood Edward Heywood Jr. (December 4, 1915 – January 3, 1989) was an American jazz pianist particularly active in the 1940s and 1950s. Biography Heywood was born in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. His father, Eddie Heywood Sr., was also a jazz m ...

; "Capricorn" for

Pearl Primus Pearl Eileen Primus (November 29, 1919 – October 29, 1994) was an American dancer, choreographer and anthropologist. Primus played an important role in the presentation of African dance to American audiences. Early in her career she saw the need ...

and

Frankie Newton Frankie Newton (William Frank Newton, January 4, 1906 – March 11, 1954) was an American jazz trumpeter from Emory, Virginia, United States. He played in several New York City bands in the 1920s and 1930s, including those led by Sam Wooding, Chic ...

; "Aquarius" for

Josh White Joshua Daniel White (February 11, 1914 – September 5, 1969) was an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, actor and civil rights activist. He also recorded under the names Pinewood Tom and Tippy Barton in the 1930s. White grew up in the Sout ...

and

Eartha Kitt Eartha Kitt (born Eartha Mae Keith; January 17, 1927 – December 25, 2008) was an American singer and actress known for her highly distinctive singing style and her 1953 recordings of "C'est si bon" and the Christmas novelty song "Santa Ba ...

; and "Pisces" for Al Hall and

Barney Josephson Barney Josephson (1902–1988) was the founder of Café Society in Greenwich Village, New York's first integrated nightclub. Opening artists in 1938 included Billie Holiday, who first performed the song "Strange Fruit" there. Background Bar ...

. While Williams appeared pleased with the recording for Asch, she had ideas for new ways to perform the suite. She began working on arranging the pieces for larger bands in a concert-hall environment. At the time, Williams had a personal relationship with Milton Orent, an

arranger In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orches ...

for

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

. With Orent, Williams listened to and discussed the work of modernist composers like

Arnold Schoenberg Arnold Schoenberg or Schönberg (, ; ; 13 September 187413 July 1951) was an Austrian-American composer, music theorist, teacher, writer, and painter. He is widely considered one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. He was as ...

and

Igor Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the ...

. She credited Orent with influencing her musical growth. Orent worked with Williams on the arrangements but the extent of his input is unclear.

Town Hall and Carnegie Hall performances

At the end of 1945, Williams performed ''Zodiac Suite'' at

Town Hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...

with Edmond Hall's chamber-jazz group. Williams went to considerable efforts to arrange the concert, having to borrow money, pay considerable sums herself, and talk Barney Josephson into renting Town Hall. The musicians employed were not particularly strong, the venue was half empty, and Orent, who was conducting, lost a page of music which confused the musicians. Critical reaction to the concert was split. Williams herself was severely upset with the performance, and was ill for the following week. The concert was recorded but the tapes were missing when Williams went to retrieve them. They are suspected to have been stolen by

Timme Rosenkrantz Baron Timme Rosenkrantz (July 6, 1911 – August 11, 1969) was a Danish aristocrat, author and jazz enthusiast. Rosenkrantz was an early supporter of African American jazz musicians and promoted many concerts and recordings. He also produced a 1 ...

for use on pirate records in Europe. Journalist

Chris Albertson Christiern Gunnar Albertson (October 18, 1931 – April 24, 2019) was a New York City-based jazz journalist, writer and record producer. Early life Albertson was born in Reykjavík, Iceland, on October 18, 1931, but his father left the family b ...

noted that Rosenkrantz released music from ''Zodiac Suite'' on the Selmer record label using different song titles. Williams was never paid for this release. The concert was eventually released in full in the 1990s. In June 1946, Williams performed ''Zodiac Suite'' with a seventy-member

after being approached by

Norman Granz Norman Granz (August 6, 1918 – November 22, 2001) was an American jazz record producer and concert promoter. He founded the record labels Clef, Norgran, Down Home, Verve, and Pablo. Granz was acknowledged as "the most successful impresar ...

. Because of the expense of a concert on this scale, Williams again had to pay for some of the organisational expenses.

Dan Morgenstern Dan Morgenstern (born October 24, 1929) is a jazz writer, editor, archivist, and producer. He is the son of the German-language Jewish author Soma Morgenstern. Morgenstern was raised in Vienna and Copenhagen and arrived in the United States in ...

considers the Carnegie Hall concert to be the first time a symphony orchestra performed jazz compositions. Williams was happy with her performance at the concert but the orchestra was slightly disappointing. The concert was taped, and Williams took precautions to avoid losing the recording as before. She arranged for Timme Rosenkrantz, whom Williams at the time did not suspect of the Town Hall theft, to guard the tapes. The tapes went missing with Rosenkrantz again suspected of purloining them. Working on the ''Zodiac Suite'' took a considerable physical and emotional toll on Williams and she subsequently took a break from performing.

Subsequent performances

Performances by Williams

Williams performed parts of ''Zodiac Suite'' with a trio in 1947 for an

NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&nb ...

benefit concert at

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York. Established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the university has been nonsectarian since 1920. Locate ...

. She had initially been invited by a Syracuse student to perform a symphonic version of the suite but her fee for this was too high for the university's budget. In 1957, she performed with Dizzy Gillespie at the

Newport Jazz Festival The Newport Jazz Festival is an annual American multi-day jazz music festival held every summer in Newport, Rhode Island. Elaine Lorillard established the festival in 1954, and she and husband Louis Lorillard financed it for many years. They hire ...

a medley of three songs from the suite ("Virgo", "Libre" and "Aries") that was included on an album of the concert. This was one of Williams's first public performances in many years. With

Melba Liston Melba Doretta Liston (January 13, 1926 – April 23, 1999) was an American jazz trombonist, arranger, and composer. Other than those playing in all-female bands she was the first woman trombonist to play in big bands during the 1940s and 1960s, ...

, Williams planned an arrangement of the suite for Thelonious Monk but the project never materialised. In 1969, Williams performed music from the suite on

Vatican Radio Vatican Radio ( it, Radio Vaticana; la, Statio Radiophonica Vaticana) is the official broadcasting service of Vatican City. Established in 1931 by Guglielmo Marconi, today its programs are offered in 47 languages, and are sent out on short wave, ...

Performances by others

Pearl Primus, Katherine Dunham and

Talley Beatty Talley Beatty (22 December 1918 – 29 April 1995) was born in Cedar Grove, Louisiana, a section of Shreveport, but grew up in Chicago, Illinois. He is considered one of the greatest of African American choreographers, and also bears the titles dan ...

all choreographed dances to sections of the suite in the 1940s.

Geri Allen Geri Antoinette Allen (June 12, 1957 – June 27, 2017) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and educator. In addition to her career as a performer and bandleader, Allen was also an associate professor of music at the University of Pittsburgh ...

, who played Williams in the film ''Kansas City'', recorded ''Zodiac Suite Revisited'' with the Mary Lou Williams Collective in 2006. In 2021, ''Zodiac Suite'' was performed by the New York Philharmonic, conducted by

Tito Muñoz Tito Arturo Muñoz (born July 14, 1983) is an American conductor and is Music Director of The Phoenix Symphony. He was previously Music Director of the Opéra national de Lorraine and Orchestre symphonique et lyrique de Nancy in Nancy, France, an ...

, and by the

Kansas City Jazz Orchestra The Kansas City Jazz Orchestra is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) big band jazz orchestra based in the Kansas City metropolitan area and part of the Kansas City jazz music scene. History The Kansas City Jazz Orchestra was founded by Jim Mair and ...

''.'' The same year, Chris Pattishall released an interpretation of the suite called ''Zodiac''.

Critical reception

''Zodiac Suite'' was considered novel in jazz music when it was first performed, both thematically and musically, due to its references to and use of

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" also ...

. The work's

symphonic A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, most often for orchestra. Although the term has had many meanings from its origins in the ancient Greek era, by the late 18th century the word had taken on the meaning com ...

nature places it as a precursor to the

third stream Third stream is a music genre that is a fusion of jazz and classical music. The term was coined in 1957 by composer Gunther Schuller in a lecture at Brandeis University. Improvisation is generally seen as a vital component of third stream. Schull ...

genre. The suite was seen as an accomplishment by the black community at the time and one journalist said the Carnegie Hall concert "completely eroded the whites-only barrier to the Carnegie Hall stage." The suite's composer being a woman also added to its import.

Ben Ratliff Ben Ratliff (born 1968 in New York City) is an American journalist, music critic and author. Ratliff is the son of an English mother and an American father, growing up in London and in Rockland County, New York. From 1996 to 2016, he wrote abo ...

called ''Zodiac Suite'' "beautifully coherent" and noted the strong feminine expression in the "unmacho" music. Jazz reviewers had an overall positive response to Williams's Asch recording. The album was chosen by ''The Record Review'' as their record of the month and was one of ''Metronome'''s albums of the year. In 2020, the album was inducted into the

Grammy Hall of Fame The Grammy Hall of Fame is a hall of fame to honor musical recordings of lasting qualitative or historical significance. Inductees are selected annually by a special member committee of eminent and knowledgeable professionals from all branches of ...

. At the time, the Town Hall arrangement received encouraging reviews from jazz critics but classical music critics were less sympathetic.

Paul Bowles Paul Frederic Bowles (; December 30, 1910November 18, 1999) was an American expatriate composer, author, and translator. He became associated with the Moroccan city of Tangier, where he settled in 1947 and lived for 52 years to the end of his ...

described the performance as "neither fish nor foul" in its attempt to marry American jazz and

French impressionism Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

. A review in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' called the suite "rather ambitious" and "scarcely a jazz piece at all".

Barry Ulanov Baruch "Barry" Ulanov (April 10, 1918 – April 30, 2000) was an American writer, perhaps best known as a jazz critic. Background Barry Ulanov was born in Manhattan, New York City. He received early instruction on the violin from his father Nathan ...

deemed the concert a "brave try, a partial success" as well as the "music of the future". The Town Hall performance is placed by ''The Penguin Jazz Guide'' as a "key moment in the recognition of jazz as an important twentieth-century music". Williams said that ''Zodiac Suite'' earned her "the name of musician's musician instead of the

Boogie Woogie Boogie-woogie is a genre of blues music that became popular during the late 1920s, developed in African-American communities since 1870s.Paul, Elliot, ''That Crazy American Music'' (1957), Chapter 10, p. 229. It was eventually extended from pia ...

Queen".

Structure

''Zodiac Suite'' is composed of

Recordings

Chris Pattishall: * ''Zodiac'' (self-published, 2021) Mary Lou Williams: * ''Zodiac Suite'' (Asch Records, 1945) - original issue; (Smithsonian/Folkways, 1995) - re-issue * ''The Complete Town Hall Concert of December 31, 1945'' (Jazz Classics Records, 1996) * ''"''Virgo", "Libra" and "Aries" on ''

Dizzy Gillespie at Newport ''Dizzy Gillespie at Newport'' is a 1957 live album by Dizzy Gillespie, featuring his big band, recorded at the 1957 Newport Jazz Festival. Reception The AllMusic review states: "This brilliant CD captures one of the high points of Dizzy Gillespi ...

'' (Verve, 1957) The Mary Lou Williams Collective (

Andrew Cyrille Andrew Charles Cyrille (born November 10, 1939) is an American avant-garde jazz drummer. Throughout his career, he has performed both as a leader and a sideman in the bands of Walt Dickerson and Cecil Taylor, among others. AllMusic biographe ...

Billy Hart Billy Hart (born November 29, 1940) is an American jazz drummer and educator. He is known internationally for his work with Herbie Hancock's "Mwandishi" band in the early 1970s, as well with Shirley Horn, Stan Getz, and Quest, among others. Bi ...

Buster Williams Charles Anthony "Buster" Williams (born April 17, 1942) is an American jazz bassist. Williams is known for his membership in pianist Herbie Hancock's early 1970s group, working with guitarist Larry Coryell from the 1980s to present, working in th ...

): * ''Zodiac Suite: Revisited'' (Mary Records, 2006)

Notes

References

Sources

* * *

External links

* {{YouTube, mBPepNvOzQw, Mary Lou Williams - Zodiac Suite (full album) Mary Lou Williams albums Jazz compositions 1945 albums Suites (music)